After the Set apart (Holy) Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost, Peter in his sermon quoted from the prophet Joel.

“And it shall be in the last days, says Elohim, that I shall pour out of My Spirit on all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams, and also on My male servants and on My female servants I shall pour out My Spirit in those days, and they shall prophesy.” (Acts 2:17-18 The Scriptures)

The wonderful good news message is that from that time, every believer in Yahshua could personally hear from the Him. The Spirit of YaHWeH was poured out over all flesh – every believer. That did not mean that the Church did not need to listen to sermons and teachings any longer, but that there would be less chance for deception. Now the Church would be able to use the gift of discernment to judge every teaching according to the Word that was written on the heart of every believer by the Set apart Spirit. (Heb.8:10-11)

With regard to the Name teaching I find that there are few people willing to honestly judge it with Scripture. More often than not it is condemned because it is being measured against the traditional name teaching that has been regarded as the truth for many centuries.

The Father speaks to each of His children personally through the Word, and with the still small voice of His Spirit. Not everyone receives the same revelation. He reveals different truths to different believers. That is why there are different ministries within the one body of Messiah (Christ). It is the responsibility of every person to share with his brothers and sisters in the faith what he receives (hears). It is then also the responsibility of the hearers to honestly judge what has been shared with them.

With regard to the Name teaching, it is again so that it is not being received by the Church in general. The problem is that it is being rejected out of hand without a fair hearing from Church leadership. Those who are propagating this teaching are being shunned as people wanting to introduce a false doctrine into the Church in order to mislead. In other words, it is simply being taken for-granted that these people have not heard from the Father. The inference of course is that only those who do not accept the Name teaching, have heard from Him. That is presumption on the part of the Name rejecters and definitely not the attitude or mind of Messiah (Christ).

One believer says; “It does not matter if we call Him Jesus or Yahshua.” The other believer says; “It does matter, because Jesus is a false name.” The question is, which one of these two statements is the truth? Is the Spirit divided against Himself? That cannot be. It is crucial that we know the truth in order to be obedient to it, no matter what the cost.

In my debating this issue with fellow believers, I often get confronted with; “Let’s agree to disagree.” It is usually made at a stage of the debate where an argument/question I’ve raised cannot be logically and honestly refuted. A question such as; “If Scripture says (Acts 4:12) that there is only one Name under heaven given to us by which to be saved, which Name is it – Yahshua or Jesus?” It cannot be both for they have different meanings as well as different pronunciations. Therefore they are different names.

Obviously no one can force another to believe what he believes. In that sense we have to agree to disagree. On the other hand, regarding our Christian Faith, there is Truth and there is falsehood. If Jesus is a false name, and can be proved to be false, then “Let’s agree to disagree” is an impossible pill to swallow, for those who have discovered the deception.

It is a similar dilemma to the baptism controversy. I have a relative who is a minister in a reformed church. With some exasperation he once said to me; “We recognize adult immersion (baptism), why can you not also recognize infant christening?” You see, it is not a problem for them to recognize what they call “adult” immersion, because immersion in water after faith in Yahshua, is Scriptural truth. They are therefore not compromising the truth, by recognizing that truth. However, if I really believe that baptism by immersion, after coming to faith in Yahshua, is the Scriptural truth, then I would be compromising the truth by recognizing infant sprinkling as an authentic form of baptism. If I recognized infant sprinkling, then obviously I would be negating my true immersion, as I was sprinkled as an infant.

Similarly, for me to place the name Jesus on par with the Name Yahshua, would be tantamount to cutting the Person of Yahshua down to size and making Him a mere man. I want to stress that I am not saying that other believers who use the name Jesus do not recognize His deity. But for me personally, having seen the importance Scripture places on the authentic Name, to use both names would be the worst form of compromise.

By Johann Möller
e-mail: johanndm@netactive.co.za

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Correct me if I am wrong but it seems that the sum and substance of this series is this;
All of the great men and women of the faith since the time of the early church have been deceived and used by Satan to propagate a lie. This would mean that the true church ceased to exist, for whatever period of time is involved, and has ONLY been recovered in later times by especially informed souls.
This sounds very much like the teaching of Joseph Smith (et.al.)